Go for the Greenery!

For a perfectly Zen — and utterly chic — centerpiece, plant a strip of sod or a patch of rye grass in a long, low, rectangular metal box or bowl, like the one pictured at right, or mound Irish moss in a wide bowl. A spray of Japanese blood grass in a narrow-necked vase brings seasonal color and spiky-but-soft texture indoors, and a few blades of bear or lily grass curving over the side of a simple, bent-necked vessel (like Teardrop vases, at right, from shopgrounded.com) adds a fluid note to a blocky coffee- or side table. Or try massing a bundle of long grass, like stipa, in a tall, hourglass-shaped vase and letting the blades cascade down like a foliage fountain.